This native plant often grows taller than any other species on the tallgrass prairie, and is probably the plant early settlers referred to in their reports of grass as tall as their saddles. The rhizomes grow so thick and dense that a nearly identical European species grows along the fragile coasts of the Netherlands to strengthen its soil. The genus name "Spartina" comes from the Greek word for "cord," because of the strength of the leaves. The species name "pectinata" comes from the Latin word for "comb," referring to the uniquely ordered arrangement of the seeds.